Alisa Camplin is expecting a baby, two years after her newborn son died from a heart defect. Picture: Megan Slade Source: Herald Sun

Alisa Camplin with husband Oliver Warner. Source: Herald Sun

OLYMPIC gold medallist Alisa Camplin says she is ecstatic but terrified at becoming a mum again two years after her adored baby son died from a heart defect.

The aerial skiing champion and Celebrity Splash judge is now 17 weeks pregnant, and will celebrate Mother's Day with husband Oliver Warner preparing for the arrival of her new bundle of joy.

"I am sort of taking it week to week but I am still pretty positive and optimistic, and I'm really looking forward to meeting this little baby," she told the Sunday Herald Sun.

Camplin's first child, Finnan Maximus Camplin-Warner, was born with congenital heart disease and had six heart operations in the 10 days that he lived.

"It would be easy to dwell on the fact that we've been statistically unlucky in the past, but my sports psychology training helps me realise that is a choice," she said.

"I just didn't want to be anxious and apprehensive for nine months straight."

If all goes well this time around, Camplin said she wanted to quickly have more children.

"If we are lucky enough to have a healthy little baby this time round, once we are up and running we will be looking quite quickly to have another baby thereafter because we would like to think our child would have a brother or sister.

"And I'm not getting any younger, so we can't dilly-dally," she said.

Camplin won Olympic gold at Salt Lake City in 2002 with a pair of fractured ankles.

Four years later, she secured a bronze medal just a few months after undergoing a full knee reconstruction.

"It is fair to say I'm not one of those glowing pregnant women," she said.

"I've been pretty much throwing up every 45 minutes. It has been almost like motion sickness.

"I have struggled to be able to watch television, to bend over and to sit up and to be in a car or on a tram.

"I am a little girl, too, and I have a history of having big babies, so I would say that I find it a little bit uncomfortable, but I'm still really looking forward to being a mum.

"I'm grateful and take all the low points for the opportunity to be a parent again," she said.

After their son's death, Camplin and her husband established Finnan's Gift - finnansgift.com - aimed at saving and improving the lives of children by providing gifts to the cardiac ward of Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital.

They are focused on buying equipment that uses infrared technology to measure the amount of oxygen in the brain of patients after cardiac surgery.

This year, they have set themselves a goal of raising $75,000 through charity drives, donations, sausage sizzles, marathons and events.

It is too early for Camplin and her husband to begin setting up the nursery at home, although they have most of the big items they need.

"We obviously expected to take Finnan home with us last time round, so we have everything almost that we need, there's a few little things to get," she said.

"I suppose in the last couple of months we will prepare the nursery and get organised, we are pretty hands-on parents."

Camplin will spend most of today filming Celebrity Splash, on which she is a judge, in Sydney, but was looking forward to being with her husband in the morning.

"He usually has a nice Mother's Day card for me," she said.

"Mother's Day and Father's Day are still very special to us."

The couple celebrated what would have been Finnan's second birthday in March.

One in 100 babies - six Australian kids every day - are born with congenital heart disease.

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Comments on this story

Emma K Posted at 12:13 PM May 12, 2013

Good luck to them this time around. Best wishes for a healthy and happy baby. They are wonderful parents. I also have a history of big babies and horrendous morning sickness. It's no walk in the park, but it's so worth it. Happy Mother's Day Alisa!

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